Quebec 2012 - Day 6

For our last day in Canada, we decided we should go back and do some shopping and looking around Quebec City. When we went for the tour, we didn't really go into any of the cute shops and I had a restaurant or two I wanted to check out. We had fun. Shara said she liked "window shopping" and I explained that now it means to go into the stores to look around but not buy. She was enjoying just looking into the windows. We had a very delicious lunch at Le Petite Cochon Dingue. When we went into the cafe, the hostess asked if we were going to eat in or take out and if we'd ever been to the restaurant before. She explained the menu, which wasn't too complex really. There was a lunch special of a sandwich of the day and it came with soup or salad and a drink. Alan and Shara both had the sandwich special - roast beef, cornichons, mustard, cheese, lettuce & tomato. I don't remember what the cheese was, but the sandwich is toasted, before the lettuce & tomato. Alan had the mushroom soup, Shara had the salad, for me. I had the roast pork, brie & caramelized apple sandwich. It was wonderful. The thin slice of brie was the perfect amount. I assume there was mayonnaise on it, but not too much. Alan & I both had the ice tea. I was surprised it was sweetened. I was also surprised I liked it. We ate on the patio, which was on the sidewalk, next to a pretty busy road, but also facing docked ships. The weather, as it had been all week, couldn't have been more perfect. Mid-seventies, sunny, breezy, amazing! We had a relaxing lunch and then more relaxing while I peeked back inside to take a couple of photos. Alan & Shara hung out on a bench while Shara tried to drink more of her sparkling lemonade.

Roast Pork w/ Brie & Caramelized Apples

Roast Beef

Pastry case

cramped quarters - chaotic ordering but it worked.

cute

We spent the afternoon looking around, listening to music, enjoying people watching, and even rode the funicular. Some more pictures from our shopping in Quartier Petit Champlain.

Mural - taken by Shara

Adorable entrance to Le lapin saute

Alan & Shara enjoying an erable pop and listening to music

Quebec 2012 - Day 5

This day was a relaxing one, travelling around the I'Ile d'Orleans, the island just to the east of Quebec City. It has been the main source of produce for the city and markets the island as one for foodies. A wonderful article is available at: Taste Report. The first stop though was to check out Le Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. Shara was very opposed to walking uphill and was only interested in the lift going up the hill. We compromised and walked down the hill, but first needed to go up a couple of staircases to get over the bridge to the other side, where we walked down a large set of stairs and then got splashed good by the mist.

Our day on the island began at La Boulange, since the toasted cranberry, raisin and apricot bread and apples and strawberries didn't seem to fill us up enough at breakfast. Actually, by the time we got there it was close to lunch time. Alan and I shared a three cheese, basil and olive pizza, and a bowl of delicious and well flavored, herbie, vegetable soup. It came with a thick slice of white bread that we all shared. Shara loved and devoured her jamon and fromage croissant with cornicon and dijon mustard.

Shara's artistic interpretation of our pesto pizza

We took a little walk up the road and stopped in a gift shop of mostly pottery, another shop that had interesting wooden sculptures and some stained glass work, and a shop on the list that sold cassis products. We learned about white, red and black currants. Tasted a few vinegars and purchased a bottle of the black currant wine vinegar. We then headed back to the car, which was parked across from the boulangerie. Alan and Shara went to the car while I went back in the bakery to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. I couldn't resist a frambois danish and picked up another cinnamon bun. They were so big! They also had some imperfect breads for sale and I got a wheat sandwich bread to put in the freezer. As far as I can tell, it just has a little strip of black on the side, probably from touching the fire. When I got back to the car, I could see Alan and Shara off in the distance, down by the water. We were parked in a lot next to a beach near the river. The beach wasn't sand but looked like sandstone, stripped red and beige, and when wet, like clay. They had gotten a few shells and rocks. When I got down we switched. Shara wanted to show me the beach and we made our way down, closer to the water. It was another perfectly beautiful day. Mid-seventies, full sun, gorgeous.

We went to several but our favorite was the Chocolaterie, which we saved for the end. We all had ice cream - Alan and Shara both had a caramel toffee and I had a waffle cone of the caramel toffee and an almond. It was wonderful and refreshing and not too heavy. It was some of the best ice cream I've had, though now I'm reading the soft ice cream dipped in chocolate is what the real treat is. I assumed it was just what was available at all the other hundreds of lateries in the area - but it's not. This place makes their own soft ice cream with very few ingredients, all natural, no preservatives. And the chocolate is actual melted chocolate, not the commercial product. Regardless, our hard ice cream was fantastic too.

relaxing at the Chocolaterie

After a day of snacking, we had a light dinner and then headed back out! This time to the free Cirque du Soleil show! We wouldn't have known about it had we not taken the tour on the first day. Apparently the students at the cirque school are the performers. It starts at sundown and is right under a highway overpass. Crazy - the cars & trucks are going by as the show is running.We got there right on time and got places up at the front. Alan held up Shara through most of the performance so she could see. It was a real treat. More special than any of the ice cream.

Quebec 2012 - Day 4

This turned out to be a really fun day. We went up the road to the Bee Museum - MUSÉE DE L'ABEILLE (http://www.musee-abeille.com) and tasted a couple of different honeys - we all agreed that the goldenrod was the best and that it would end up helping our allergies if we were to take a little bit of it daily. The blueberry was disappointing and the clover I didn't bother with, since that's rather common. On their website they also show having buckwheat and dandelion varieties, but those weren't available on our visit. We also had some of the honey vinegar, made from mead, but it was too acidic. They had honey ice cream and we had to split a boule of the maple (erable) flavored. We also spoke to a few people who were also visiting the area. I thought it was nice to have a conversation with more than just ourselves. With so many French speakers, it was sort of isolating not being able to pick up a short conversation with others, since we can't assume they're comfortable speaking English.

We then went to a roadside produce stand (legumes) for fruit and veggies. There were signs all over for strawberries and I couldn't leave the area without getting some. Wow, they were awesome. We also picked up some green and yellow string beans, apples, and sugar corn (maze sucre). I had brought the tomatoes and cucumbers from last week's CSA order, along with a few plums, but we needed some more and we got beautiful veggies. The first day when we stopped at the local market, I had picked up some fresh mozzarella to go with the tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have anything else to make a tomato salad, but knew we wanted to really cook in at least one dinner. We didn't eat many meals out, but were very off-schedule, so sometimes we'd have brunch, other times linner. The corn and beans, along with the salad & mozzarella, were a great meal starter.

The next stop was a Chez Marie's (http://chezmariepainartisanal.piczo.com/) boulangerie. They're repaving the roads near the bakery and a very Quebecquois man who was directing traffic didn't want to let us go further until he heard we were trying to get to the bakery. Then he grudgingly let us through. We had asked if he spoke English, as he explained in French that the road was closed, and he said, "NO, Francaise! Quabecquois!" Loud and clear, mesoir! So we got to the bakery and it was very interesting. It looked like a little store from the 50's - dark with showcases down the long room, and had a few tables and chairs on the outside wall, near windows and a main entrance. The baked goods were in a usual rack on the back wall. They smelled wonderful. She had blueberry & cheese danish, strawberry & cheese danish, cinnamon rolls, croissant, and bread. I picked a blueberry & cheese danish, Shara had a caramel apple danish, and Alan had the cinnamon roll. She wanted to wrap the cinnamon roll separately and I said it was fine to put them together and she said the roll was still warm and it may ruin the other ones. We both agreed nothing would last long enough anyway, but all was neat and tidy and beautiful.

Shara outside the oven

Shara examining a ladybug outside the oven

Outside Chez Marie's

Alan & Shara enjoying a picnic

Heading back on the main road, we began our original destination of the Canyon de Sainte Anne. I had read it had a fun puzzle game through the forest and also was where a company had rock climbing courses and a zip-line. There were suspension bridges to cross over a waterfall (chute) and it was supposed to be a pretty way to spend an afternoon. Once we parked we noticed the picnic area was outside the main gate, so got our pastry, strawberries and apples (Shara had already munched on some raw beans in the car), and made a picnic. Once we got inside the park, we saw a wide, paved road going down to the canyon. We were all a bit concerned this is what was to come and worried it would be a little boring. Well, that wasn't the case. It turned out to be a can't miss attraction. We went down to the falls, then over a suspension bridge - very solid, then down some stairs and around the bend, along the river, up more stairs and hills, then over another suspension bridge - not as solid. This one was where you could take the alternate path of the zip line. Shara really wanted us to do that but neither Alan nor I felt up for it. Alan wanted to do it somewhere where the people's first language was English. I didn't like the end of the ride where the person has to get out of the harness and walk across a short plank to the main path. Needless to say, zip-lining wasn't part of our day, but we promised we'd do it closer to home some time. Shara didn't want to do it either, and she was big enough. The last bridge we went over was rather scary. It was made out of metal rails, jagged so you couldn't slip, but you could see right through to the rushing water, so far down. It was fine when we (Shara & I) could look out and not down, but there were stairs that required us to look down. Scary is also exhilarating and we were pumped to go up the 175 (or so) steps, back to the top. It really wasn't so much, considering how many we had walked up at Walnut Canyon in AZ.

After the canyon we checked out the puzzle in the forest. We learned about Inocshok and Menhir and primative wall paintings and the Chinese also have seven deadly sins. It was fun and a nice walk around the wooded area. Along the path we had to keep watch for pictures of birds. A letter was associated with each picture and we filled in a paper to find out the word the letters spelled. It was cute and kept us all entertained.

On the way back we had to stop, again, at the market because we needed butter for the corn and balsamic for the mozzarella. Well we got butter and vinegar but forgot any seasonings. Good thing we had picked up some nice salad dressing because we had the most excellent corn with butter, beans with butter, salad with dressing, olives, and do what you want with the mozzarella. We also got lousy bread for dinner, but very yummy bread for breakfast. We capped the evening with a cut-throat game of Sorry.

Quebec 2012 - Day 3

This was a very exciting day. The evening before I had realized our journey to the Whale Watching would take close to four hours, so we needed to get a rather early start to get there by 1:15 PM, 45 min. before our 2 PM reservation. We were going to be on a Zodiac boat, which is a small boat that holds about 14 people and it was up in Bergeronnes, near Tadousaac in the St. Lawrence River Estuary. We went on the tour from Essipit.

On the way, we wanted to stop for brunch at a Boulangerie I had read about and it happened to be closed. We stopped in a nearby information center, used the bathrooms and got information on where to eat. They had a nice recommendation for a Cafe Chez Nous and it was. Alan and I both had omelettes and Shara had crepes. All were served with fruit and beverage and the eggs came with toast as well. Shara wasn't too fond of the crepes but loved my toast. We also were amused that the tablecloths were printed with old newspaper ads, from Boston, Providence, Troy & Albany NY, and other local to us businesses.
After the nice stop we carried forth toward our destination.

Yum - my veggie omelette

icky crepes

cute cafe

We got caught up in construction for a surprisingly long time. We then wended our way to the ferry. That was neat - they run every 15 min. or so and last about 10 min. Then it was another 40 minutes or so to the whale watch place. We got there in plenty of time but Shara got a little upset stomach from the long journey and the phone play, so she didn't want to go. We suited up anyway and she was so happy she did. Originally she said, "I won't regret not doing this" but then thought very differently. It was a fun, bumpy, wet ride out to the whales and we saw several humpbacks but the favorite were the hundreds, it seemed, gray seals. They were swimming with the whales and came really close to the boat. None of the whales were very close to the boat, but we were so far in the water, being on the little boat, it felt much more intimate than if we were on one of the big, stinky whale watching boats we've been on in the past.

Geared up!

on the boat

On the way back to the resort we stopped for dinner at a nice fish market I had read about. It was good but too rich for me. Shara ate almost her whole platter of fish & chips though!

my, that's a big plate of fries you have!

it was so buttery and tasty!

yummy!

beautiful sunset after some rain

Quebec 2012 - Day 2

This was an exciting day for us. We were going horseback riding, and on the beach too! The evening before I went to the resort office to see if they knew anything about the horseback riding place I had found and they didn't. They said it was very far away though - 1.5 hours. That wasn't too far for us, and the resort didn't have any stables that offered riding on the beach, which I really wanted to experience, so we keep our original plans. Happily they called the stables for us to verify the details because it was unclear where we were supposed to meet. They confirmed our reservation and it sounded to the girl at the desk that we meet at the stables. She printed out the directions (indicators) for us and even printed the directions from the stables website, which were more detailed. Alan's nav system didn't have any trouble though.

We got up and moving fairly relaxed because our reservations weren't until 1 PM, and we needed to arrive 1/2 hour before. We had breakfast in the condo, I think we played a game of Uno, left at about 10 am. The ride there was beautiful. We saw tons of cute farm houses and lots of land. Most of the route was along the water and it was so blue! Many of the metal roofs were a blue similar to the river. We passed a number of houses selling vegetables (legumes and bluets are in season now), fromageries, a bucherie or two, and a couple of poteries. There was only one touristy town we went through during this trip and we didn't stop because we were going to get to the stables at just the right time. The road varied from mountains to seaside and seaside mountains. There was only one road that was nerve wracking, and it was close to our destination. I didn't like the huge hills we (Alan) had to drive up and down, because I never felt comfortable that there wouldn't be something over a rise that we couldn't see, like a mousse or a stopped car. During the drive, Shara read one of her Pet Fairy books and played on her itouch. She didn't enjoy the scenery as much as we did but often when we'd point something out, we'd get a "wow" or "shush" depending on what she was doing. We're working on rudeness!

We got to the farm and a person there knew enough English to tell us yes, we were supposed to meet on the beach. We had seen a sign at the beach that said Equestrian, but weren't confident it was our place, so just to be safe, we drove up the hill to check. Can't be right all the time and we had time, so no big deal. Back to the beach and park and walk over to a blue & yellow (similar to Cirque du Soliel colors) canope with horses. It was a cute setup. They had a picnic table as their office and the horses had the canopy as their stable, with hay and water. We signed the release, paid, and were assigned a horse. Shara had peanut, Alan had Bella, and I had Ali (not sure if it was a male or female). Shara's was the smallest and we were told she'd ride behind the guide, and he held a lead. There were about 10 people in our group. One of the people said they had been on this tour before and the horses were gentle and well behaved. I was a little nervous, not being on a horse since I was Shara's age. Mostly I was nervous I wouldn't be able to hoist myself up onto the horse. This was Alan's second time on a horse and Shara has been on pony rides and that wonderful lesson with Korin, but that was already two years ago! She did remember what she was taught and handled everything beautifully. When we first got on, and I did get myself up fine, we all got in line. These horses weren't automatons like many trail horses. These had to be steared and would stop and not follow the line all the time, or get really close to the horse in front of them. I was following behind Shara and Alan was behind me. I have to mention, the beach wasn't a fine sandy beach but rather rocky and muddy and shaped like a cove, with a high, wooded hill to our left, where we walked toward. It was low tide we could have walked out pretty far. Before we set off on the trip down the beach, Peanut got a little feisty and didn't buck, but did that horsy, backwards walk. The guide had to get him back in line and tell him to stay in line and be good. I held my breath, thinking Shara was going to cry and say she was done, but she was a trooper and carried on. We walked a bit, then were told to stop the horses and let them drink at a little stream, and then went down the beach. Much of the time we heard a thuck, thuck of the hooves in the mud. It was rather relaxing and felt very natural and I kept fantasizing how it would be to take off. On the way back, Peanut had a couple of episodes where he showed he wasn't in a cooperative mood - he started to trot twice, and Shara just hung on and dealt with it. She seems very comfortable on a horse and reported back that she did get nervous when he did that, especially since her foot had come out of her stirrup. When it did, she said something to the guide and he stopped while she worked to get it back in. She said what she was most worried about was how she was going to get off. They didn't use a step-stool to get her on - mostly just helped push her up. To get down, she got her leg across and they helped lift her down. She loved it. I liked it a lot but there were times when it was a little monotonous, and Alan enjoyed it. We want to try the woods next time.

The Beach

After riding, we went to a Casse-Croute across the street and were able to order a Grande Marie (Alan), cheeseburger (Shara), chicken burger (Laurie). Turns out the Grande Marie, which sounded like a grilled chicken sandwich with fries and cole slaw, was a very vegetably chicken salad  - had shredded lettuce, chopped chicken and some mayo, in a buttered/grilled hot dog roll, with fries and cole slaw. My chicken burger was fried, but really good - Weaver, I'm sure, and Shara's burger was a burger. After we went for a very short walk up a hill, through some woods behind the Casse, that went to the road we originally drove down. A nice stretch for our legs before we got back in the car and headed toward our home away from home.

Entrance to the little trail

Along the way we saw an Alpaca farm and pulled over to take a look because we couldn't resist the cute, little creatures. They were adorable and so many of them! They were recently sheared so the only furry parts left were the feet, tails and heads. We went inside their shop and Shara kept calling me over to feel this and feel that; very soft. The rest of the journey wasn't exciting and we ended up having an early evening. Shara and I did our nails on the deck and Alan relaxed with a little gaming.

Alpaca farm

Quebec 2012 - Day 1

Had to get the lay of the land so first thing was to have a tour of Quebec City. It's a two hour walking tour and our guide, Carole (French pronunciation, si vous plait) gave us a great history of the city and area. We learned of the three different periods - French, British, Canadian - and the battles toward independence. We also learned about the roofs that distinguish Quebecois buildings and had we been here a few months back, maybe we would have ended up with a bright red metal roof instead of our black one (kidding). But we would have had several opportunities to see many of the different colors available. She also pointed out where the locals go in the city and when Alan asked where to get the best poutine, she quickly confessed her favorite was from Chez Ashton. It was a great tour for those interested in history, but it also had enough time at the stops for antsy people, and maybe children, to take pictures and walk around a bit. There were 16 (seize) in our group from all over, including Australia. Shara was in charge of the photos.

Gold! at the Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec

Ursulines Sisters' Acadamy

Ceiling in the Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec

Tomb in the Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec

Laval Seminary (Shara liked the gold)

Laval Seminary (now the Laval University's school of architecture)

Place Royal

Pizza place in the Place Royal

After our tour we decided to try to find Chez Ashton and get our poutine fix. I can understand why Carole thinks it's so good - it is. Just like McDonalds has the best fries, this place is of the fast food chain tradition and makes great fries. But these are much thicker and topped with cheese curds and gravy! How can you go wrong?

Then we walked around some more, in search of something to round out our snack and make it a meal. Shara started getting a little hungry and tired, so when we couldn't agree on anything or have patience to look at some of the tons of restaurants in the area, we settled for a yucky, but convenient, "Italian" food chain. It turned out to be fine. I had salad, Alan had salad & bruschetta, and Shara had terrible spaghetti & meatballs with very good apple cider and a bit of Alan's caesar. Hers came with dessert (seems to be a theme) and she got the fruit cup with promises of something better to come later. This was pretty much dinner for us, since it was about 3 PM when we got out of there. Then of course came more walking. We wanted to see the Citadel and check out the Hotel Frontenac. We meandered our way over to the wall and just followed it until we reached the Citadel. There were a couple of times when we weren't sure if we were going to get out in the correct place, but it was hard to get lost when following a wall that surrounds a whole city. As long as we were going in the general direction, so as not to walk around the circumference of the entire city, we figured we'd find it. Shara wasn't so confident, but a game of tag, seeing a cute kitten, and viewing the pretty fountain made things a bit better.

at the wall

It was a bit of a walk till we got to the Citadel but it was perfect timing. They had a changing of the guards ceremony we were able to witness. It was just a small one that appears to happen on the hour, but we still enjoyed it.

changing of the guard

We then wandered to the Hotel Frontenac to check it out some more, see what it was like inside and also use the bathroom. Well, the bathroom was quite a situation. They only had 2 stalls available and the line was out the door. We waited for probably 20 minutes and when we left, the line was gone. That's a case of hitting something at the wrong time. Doesn't happen to us often, fortunately. The hotel was pretty, but nothing as spectacular as I was thinking it would be. We didn't get a great view of the outside because much of it is covered for renovation. But that's fine. The boardwalk around the side and back were very pretty and we enjoyed walking around and looking at the ships. We even saw a black squirrel! It was climbing up the cable next to a flume they use for people to sled down in the wintertime. Apparently the people can travel the length of the boardwalk!

We made some dinner out of gelato and found a funny street act out front to watch while we ate our ice cream. By the time we got back to the condo it was after 7:30 already. Time to get to bed!